NP '42: Deciding on Tabeltop Rules

Over the weekend, I set up trying to settle on a set of rules for the North Pole games. There were quite a lot in contention, but the top contenders for this experiment were: One Brain-Cell Toy Soldiers (1BC) with card-based unit activation, G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. with half-sized units, and One Hour Skirmish Wargames(OHSW).

For the scenario, a German platoon of three 5-man sections, one HMG, one light mortar and a platoon leader is advancing to capture some buildings on the outskirts of Christmas Village. An under-strength platoon of British paras, consisting of two 5-man sections, an HMG, and a platoon leader, move into the area to hold off the German advance. The Germans win if they capture both buildings, otherwise it's a win for the British.

You can tell this is non-canonical as I didn't break out my dozens of Christmas trees for the woods.

The fact that the pictures below tell a cohesive story is completely by accident. They are from multiple games.

British occupy the ruined building on their left.

 

"Knock! Knock!"

British assault the house.

The German right advances under cover of light mortar fire. The mortar was more devastating in some games than others. This must be from the GASLIGHT game where the max range was 24". In OHSW it's infinite (and can't move), and in 1BC, off hand, I believe it's at least 36".

The HMG covers the building in case the British capture it, while the English and Germans exchange fire from the relative safety of the trees. Either 1BC or GASLIGHT, because tripod HMGs can't move in OHSW.

The Germans hold the farm house, and the defenders of the other building are defeated in close assault.

Things take a turn for the worse on the British right.

Game over. This is most likely from the OHSW game, as contact with a downed figure is immediate figure removal.

I'm not sure I'm any further along in deciding.

I *can* say that, while it's no secret I love OHSW,, 18 units (the Germans, each figure or weapon team is a unit) on one side really felt like it was straining the system. 

The action felt less chaotic whirlwind and more disjointed than usual. At best you can take action with 13 units, and more often than not less than that. If you want to move and shoot with each figure even drawing a King, you're looking at 6 figures taking action.  To make it work, I'd have to drop one of the 5-man sections or support weapons or some similar combination (never mind that I have tanks, half-tracks, PAK-38s etc. for the Germans to use at the North Pole).

Both GASLIGHT and OHSW handle characters and vehicles easily - so a coin flip there.

GASLIGHT requires some adjustments for the under-sized units: morale and Shoot values primarily. Morale is somewhat silly in GASLIGHT, which I love, but maybe not for WWII troops (definitely would use for woodland creatures, elves, etc.).

1BC wins for simplicity and adding card activation made it more like GASLIGHT. There's no vehicle rules so they require improvising - nothing I haven't done before, and I could probably bolt on either of the others in some way, but still, it's extra work.

I really like the Force Motivation and Force-level Morale check in OHSW as opposed to individual unit morale checks in GASLIGHT or 1BC. Although, this was the first time I ever came close to a side failing their morale check - the paras lost their PL (a Leader(3) in OHSW terms) and only had their section leaders (Leader(1)  in OHSW terms). They came within 1 point of failing their morale check.

So, each set has things that work, and things that work sort-of. And I like them all. 

Maybe I'll just choose whichever one I'm feeling on the day? Or maybe, more play tests are in order? Oh darn.

One Hour Wargames : Fantasy : Scenario 2

The other day, I decided it was time to get a suitably old school ground cloth form my fantasy figures. A few moments on the web, and a few days wait, and voila - a 36" square piece of felt in "sand".

Of course, I couldn't wait for the folds to work themselves out of the felt.  Instead, I shoved the clutter that had piled up on the folding table out of my way and set up a game. With 36" width, 9-12 element armies sounded reasonable. I used a deck of cards to determine army composition.

I randomly rolled Scenario 2 from One Hour Wargames - it's not one of my favorites, but I really just wanted to push figures around on the new felt.

The foliage has no effect other than aesthetic.

The lizard army, who I've renamed the Tolokok, had: 

• 4 units of Warband (they use the OHW Dark Age warband rules)
• 1 unit of Skirmishers (OHW Ancients skirmisher)
• 3 units of Archers (OHW Ancients archers)
• 1 Beast
• 1 Hero

The Tanitians fielded:

• 2 units of Heavy Infantry (OHW Ancients infantry)
• 4 units of Skirmishers (OHW Ancients skirmisher)
• 1 Beast
• 2 Heroes

Heroes and Beasts both get bonuses on their attacks and 1/2 damage received. So, it's not as unbalanced as this looks.

A hero and two Heavy Infantry units dominated the lizard beast and warbands 

Small but mighty. He would slay the beast.

The Tantians pushed their heavy infantry to take the hill while the skirmishers were left to hold the crossroads. Meanwhile the lizard skirmishers and remaining archers attacked the crossroads. When the battle ended, the Tanitians held the hill and the Tokolok held the crossroads. A tie.

Narrative History of Events Leading to the German Decision to Invade the North Pole

The events that led to the German invasion of the North Pole were more serendipitous than part of any grand scheme. In fact, in retrospect, it is almost as if the whole situation had been contrived solely to insure there would be a conflict at the Pole.

On Christmas Eve, 1941, a disgruntled member of the “Prep and Landing” team, lax in his duties, was captured (asleep no less) by the Gestapo in Hamburg, Germany.

Bitter at being passed over for promotion, he (let’s call him “Judas” for the sake of this history) readily offered up what details he had about the location of Santa’s Castle - a misnomer, as it includes not only the castle proper but surrounding industrial complex aka The Workshop, training fields for the reindeer, housing for elves, a vibrant arts district (elves need downtime like everyone else), etc.

The “North Pole”, as it is called, although it is not the geographic place of the same name, is a medium-sized island in the Arctic Circle, shrouded from view from the air by powerful magic, but, oddly, at the time, still accessible by sea (where it looked like a large chunk of ice). For the Nazis, this was music to their ears - surely, the jolly fat man would offer no resistance to the might of Germany..

Before Judas could disabuse them of that notion, and reveal the island’s defenses, he was “silenced” by European agents of C.L.A.S.S. (Cute Little Animals in Santa’s Service)  who infiltrated the Hamburg Gestapo headquarters early Christmas Day, 1941. Notice the absence of the term “rescued” in the preceding sentence. 

Artist rendition.

If you betray Santa, word travels fast. Plus, war is hell.

Although the Gestapo had yet to determine exactly what to do with the informant, the result would have been the same, so, they shrugged their collective shoulders, disposed of the body, reported the information, and went back to carrying out their evil deeds.

In their eagerness, the German command worked with the limited intelligence they had (a comment on the information Judas provided and their own character) to prepare a plan to land a kampfgruppe on the “North Pole”, assault Santa’s Castle and capture Santa. 

Surely, they reasoned, it would bring Europe and much of the world to its knees.

A Mish Mash of Updates

Of late, mostly I'm focused on building my guitar teaching side-gig and gaming and painting have taken a back seat, as a result. 

I've barely applied paint to a figure - I have three Necrons and two scarab bases about 80% finished, I just need to set aside the time. I have played a few quick games here and there mostly to try things out - a couple of games with my 54mm WWII British paras and Matchbox Germans, one with my brick WWII minifigures (a Disposable Heroes / Coffin for Seven Brothers-ish game), and a small (literally) sci-fi game using ten 15mm figures I brought with me on vacation last week.

"Research", such as it is, never stops, however.

Recently I read  She  and The Land that Time Forgot (actually, all three books in that series in a single bound volume), and I just finished At the Earth's Core (I've ordered books two and three in that series). 

Currently I'm reading Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar, and a little more on topic, Henry Hyde's Wargaming Campaigns (which was on sale for $4.99 USD for the Kindle version a bit ago and I grabbed it.). 

The latter, combined with some recent downsizing of my collections, has inadvertently lead to the creation of a campaign idea: North Pole '42

Briefly, because I haven't fleshed it out more than this, the British fascist industrialist, Sir Topham Hat, has partnered with Hitler to find and capture Santa's workshop / castle. Through means I haven't decided yet (it doesn't really matter), they have identified the hidden island in the region of the North Pole that is home to Christmas magic.

Map created in Google Draw.

The map may be tweaked a bit but it's usable for my purposes as is. 

If I had to say, I'd say 5 miles per hex (hmm, that might be a bit much) but it's not really a map campaign as far as I have thought so far - more of a narrative campaign and I just wanted to make a map. The whole point is to use my Christmas figures year round, and to push me to ordering a block of clay so I can make some additional woodland creatures to fight Nazis.

Allied support, when it arrives, will be provided by British paratroops (Trixie the Elf has some friends in MI6) with Winter Warlock and King Moonracer allowing the British planes to fly over the island (for some reason, they can't prevent landings by sea - although I just had inspiration that maybe magic narwhals might have something to say about that).

I'm not sure when the whole thing will kick off - I'm simultaneously building up my fantasy world background and map so that I can generate backgrounds for those battles as well.

One Hour Wargames, Heroes, and Spell Casters

The game is afoot! Actually, it was two feet. I'm playing on a 24" square. I'll see myself out.

 

I have been considering how to handle Heroes and Spell Casters in my fantasy version of One Hour Wargames (my fantasy version just combines the units from Ancients, Dark Ages, and Medieval, and then adds heroes and casters). 

This past weekend I put them to a (very limited) test.

My ideas for Heroes worked well - they aren't *too* powerful, but they can do a lot. I'm thinking perhaps they should all receive 1/2 Damage in addition to the re-roll, so they can go toe-to-toe with Ancient heavy infantry.

The spell casting concept worked but I'm not convinced casting should cost the caster their regular strength points. I like it in theory mind you but it may be better to use the One Page Rules Age of Fantasy : Skirmish idea of spell points, managed separately from the health of the caster. It would be something else to manage though - and as a solo gamer, I try to minimize that.

Heroes

All heroes may re-roll attack die, but must keep 2nd score (this is taken from the OHW FB group)

For each hero, prior to the start of the game:

• Choose one of:
• 1/2 Damage Received (armor, dodge, luck)
• +2 to Range Attack
• +2 to Melee Attack
• Quick(9" movement rate on foot)
  
• Choose one of (these have no cost to the Hero): 
• Inspiring (friendly unit in base contact prior to unit action recovers1d3 points) 
• Combat Leader (friendly unit in base contact may reroll attack die, but must keep 2nd score)
• Tactics Master (friendly unit in base contact at start of that unit's movement may move up to double their movement rate)
  

Spell Casters

• Casting takes a toll on the caster. Each time a spell is cast, the caster takes damage. The "Cost" in the list below is the damage the caster takes.
  
• A Caster reduced to 0 points by casting is exhausted and removed from the battle.
• Each time a caster casts a spell, they may choose one spell from the following ten spells.  
• Casters may cast any spell from the list below.
• Casters may only cast one spell per turn.
  
• Target units, be they friend or enemy or self, cannot be in melee when the spell is cast on them. 

Optional: Casters melee at -2. This is the way the Fantasy rules on the OHW FB group do it. I don't like this, because my casters are warrior-casters, but if your concept is more like a DnD Magic-Users, then by all means.

Attack

Give the options descriptive names that fit your concept of the caster. For example, a Fire Mage might have Fire Ball, Rain of Fire, and Storm of Fire.

• Long Range Attack, range 48", cost 1, causes d6-2 damage
  
• Standard Attack, range 12",  cost 2, causes d6 damage
  
• High Power Attack, range 12", cost 3, d6 + 2 damage
  

Defense

• Shield (Self), range 0", cost 1, lasts until next turn
  
• Shield (Unit), range 6", cost 2, lasts until next turn
  
• Breathing Room, range 12", cost 3, enemy unit pushed back 3"
  

Utility

Call them what you will but these are the effects:

• Haste (Self),  range 0", cost 1, move double-sped
• Lesser Healing, unit within 6" cost 2, unit restores1d3 strength points
• Haste (Unit),  unit within 6", cost 3,  unit advances one move, does not count as their action
• Greater Healing, unit within 6", cost 4, unit restores 1d3 + 2 strength points
  

Many more spells are possible of course - in fact while typing this up, I thought of several more that might be fun. It ultimately depends on how much time you want to spend reading spell lists!

One Hour Wargames : Fantasy

Continuing the thread of "rebasing IS my hobby", at some point, a few weeks ago, I decided to base my Tanitians, Dies-Nox, and Gokrug Confederacy as multi-figure bases except for heroes, spell-casters, and monstrous creatures.

Although I am using One Hour Wargames, I like to imagine it has a very Hordes of the Things-vibe (although I've never played it). Besides the size of my bases, the other notable aesthetic difference is that I left my "personality" figures on round bases. 

I may put them by themselves on a rectangle, maybe with some kind of scenery or vignette. 

Tanitia attempts to invade a remote region of Dies-Nox. The D-N general reacts aggressively - moving out to meet the invaders. Unfortunately, almost half of their force is archers.

For rules, I have been using Ancients (Tanitia, Gokrug skirishers), Dark Ages (Gokrug), and Medieval (Dies-Nox) from One Hour Wargames. Each army uses the rules that are appropriate to the era it is assigned. This makes for an interesting variety and a potential difference in tactics by nationality. 

For example, Tanitian heavy infantry receives +2 on attacks, and halves damage received, but those benefits are split in the Medieval era, so that Dies-Nox knights get +2 on their attack, while the men-at-arms 1/2 damage received. Dies-Nox archers range attack with +2, while Tanitian archers have no die-roll modifier.

Tanitia dominates and in the swirling melees, manages to flank and destroy multiple Dies-Nox units.

For the single-figures, I bolted on the "personality" rules from a set of Fantasy modifications from an OHW Facebook group. I'm not sold on those- they feel a bit too generic and not at all like I imagine things. For example - spell-casters have but one spell (fireball). I enjoy having a variety of spells to choose from: utilitarian, defensive, and offensive - as the situation merits. 

Similarly, I think, if I keep heroes independent of infantry/cavalry units, then I think they too should have special abilities. Although a lone hero (or hero and their retinue) attacking an entire infantry unit is pretty special in its own right.

So, I have some rule modifications to try. At least until I rebase again.

Novokh Dynasty Necrons

 The first batch of Necrons is done! The color scheme is Novokh Dynasty - whatever that means. To me it means I can use the same reds as my Blood Ravens and get more use out of those expensive paints.

I had trouble getting an in-focus picture where the scarabs were equally in view. I blame the fact that I really need to get new glasses. I can't remember how long it's been.

Speaking of focus, I've been more focused on my guitar teaching in an effort to ramp up operations so to speak, so painting, and gaming generally, has moved into a more casual, less obsessed?, mode. It has had the odd effect of making painting a relaxing activity rather than something I'm doing solely to get a game on the table.

Between playing games while not taking pictures and painting to relax, it all feels very "retro"!